Tile choice
Clay or concrete roof tiles: which lasts longer?
Published lifespans favour clay, but guides disagree on concrete. Below: the figures, weight, pitch limits and what a survey settles.
The short answer
Clay has the longer published lifespan, though the figures differ on how much longer. Marley, a tile maker, cites a BRE minimum life expectancy of 60 years for clay, and HomeBuilding gives clay tiles 60-80 years against 40-50 years for plain concrete tiles. Marley puts tiles in general at around 60 years and calls that no promise of longevity. Weight, pitch and fixing matter as much as the material itself, and each is checked on a survey before a price is given.
5 min read · Part of Pitched roofing
Lifespans as the makers and guides print them
Lifespans are typical ranges, never promises, and each guide words its figure differently. HomeBuilding labels its column approximate, and its page was last updated on 30 September 2025. Where two guides disagree, as they do on concrete, we name both rather than pick whichever suits the argument.
| Tile | Published by | Figure |
|---|---|---|
| Clay | HomeBuilding | 60-80 years |
| Plain concrete | HomeBuilding | 40-50 years |
| Double Roman concrete | HomeBuilding | 40-50 years |
| Roof tiles in general | Marley | Around 60 years |
Marley also gives a figure for clay on its own: a BRE minimum life expectancy of 60 years. None of these numbers says anything about the battens, underlay or fixings beneath the tile, and those can need work long before the covering itself is finished. A tile with years left in it can still sit on a roof that needs stripping, so the survey covers the whole slope, not one tile, and the loft view of the battens and underlay counts for as much as the tile face. Replacing a covering that still has decades in it is never the first suggestion, and a sound slope is mended rather than stripped.
Weight, pitch and what the roof carries
Moving from one material to the other changes the load on the rafters. The Planning Portal asks for Building Regulations approval where the new covering is 15 per cent or more heavier than the old one, and AD A treats loading that rises by more than 15% as a significant change. So we set the two data sheets side by side and, if the new covering is the heavier, a structural engineer or surveyor looks at the timbers before any price is given.
Pitch is the second limit. Each tile has a minimum angle published by its maker, and a roof shallower than that angle cannot take it. Marley lists clay tiles from 15° for a Lincoln pantile up to 40° for its Canterbury tile, and concrete tiles from 12.5° to 35°. Canterbury there is a product name, not the city. Our minimum pitch page lists the rest, though the data sheet for the exact tile has the last word. If the roof is shallower than a tile allows, the choice narrows to the tiles that suit it, and that can settle the question before cost or looks come into it.
What each one costs to mend
Repair rates give a feel for how the coverings compare when a few tiles go, though they say nothing about a whole slope. Checkatrade's repair rates run from £90 to £120 per m² for concrete tiles, £110 to £160 per m² for clay and £150 to £220 per m² for natural slate. They are worked up to a maximum of 3 m², exclude VAT, leave out the cost of access equipment, and come from a table last updated in June 2026.
- Concrete is the lowest of the three repair rates
- Clay sits in the middle
- Natural slate is the highest
Because these suit a handful of tiles, nobody should multiply them out into a price for a whole roof. A full re-roof is different work, and what we send is a single written total, produced once the survey is done. The cost to retile page sets out the published whole-roof ranges with their authors and dates, so you can lay our quote beside them when it arrives and see where it sits. We never price from a rate; the figure follows the survey of your roof.
How the choice gets made on a survey
We begin from the existing covering, note its condition, measure the pitch, check the rafters from the loft and read the data sheet of any tile you are weighing up. Fixing comes into it as well. Marley says installing to BS 5534 "isn't required by law", yet the code covers batten selection, methods of fixing, wind uplift formulas and a means of calculating fixing specifications. Coastal homes are graded for higher exposure, meaning the fixings are calculated for each individual site. That calculation comes before the tile order does, because the batten and fixing choice depends on it.
Planning is a separate test. Re-roofing a house falls under Class C of the permitted development order, so a change of tile type is normally permitted development unless the house is listed or an Article 4 direction applies. A listed home also needs listed building consent where the work touches the character of the building, and an Article 4 direction can remove rights, so the council is asked before we start. Where a repair is sound, you hear that before any re-roof is priced. The pitched roofing page shows how that work runs from survey to finish.
More questions
Can I put concrete tiles on a roof that now has clay?
It counts as a change of covering, so the Planning Portal weight test comes into play: 15 per cent or more heavier means Building Regulations approval. The new tile must also suit the pitch, and the rafters must carry it. We compare the data sheets on the survey and bring an engineer in where the load goes up.
Does the tile material change how it must be fixed?
BS 5534 covers slating and tiling whichever material you pick. The fixing specification is calculated from the site and its exposure, and Marley notes that the 2015 amendments stopped mortar being the sole fixing for a covering. The material changes the maker's instructions and the loading figures, but the calculation is still needed, and we do it before any tile is ordered.
Tell us what's wrong with the roof.
You'll get one written total price.